Should the government control the price of food and gas? | Hacker News Reader

Should the government control the price of food and gas?

cnn.com

2 pointssteelstraw6 comments

Price controls have been historically disastrous, primarily leading to shortages. If anything the govt should be looking at ways to help increase supply of both. Remember all the domestic drilling that was shut down? Also it feels like the transition to electric cars is accelerating. Look at all the new electric car models coming to market this year alone.

Unequivocally no. We know for a fact that central planning doesn’t work and never will. Economists agree as well. It’s not even a question worth asking.

I'm the first to admit the terrible history of centralised planning, but that is a different question to price controls.

America and much of UK/Europe have a long history of successful price controls, eg. rent controls, public transport pricing, monopoly pricing controls (power, utilities, etc), and so on. Read the article.

And for those who's reaction is "no no no", you should look into the appalling history of rampant capitalism - explicit or hidden collusion/corruption, resource exhaustion (eg. overfishing), and effects of unmanaged exponential overuse (we make more, it gets cheaper, demand goes up, repeat until crash).

I don’t think what you cited are examples of price controls, and in cases where they are closer to price controls (like rent control) the benefits are at best debatable and more than likely not great. I’m not opposed to general government regulation or anything either.

The article quoted many economists saying that price controls are a bad idea. Idk why you’re suggesting I should read the article here. Did you?

We don't know either of these things, and economists don't agree as well. It's a question well worth asking.

Public utility energy regulation. Health Economics.

Price controls are common worldwide and don't always do what you think.

We do know for a fact that central planning doesn’t work. To the extent that fringe economists disagree is to the extent that academics with ideological bends will disagree about all sorts of stuff for no good reason.

Both public utility regulations and health economics are less about price controls and more about regulation and/or government buyer power.

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